Aladdin 2019
Aladdin is probably my favorite Disney animated feature movie, so I was very leery of how they would mess with it for a needless live action version, but also curious and not unwilling to sit through it since I knew I should like it. I will admit it starts out kind of weak. The Agrabah town set looks like a set, not that realistic, though they do a good job of recreating much of what was shown in the original movie. They have added a couple of new songs, plus a couple of new characters and some romance for the Genie, but otherwise it is pretty much the same story. The scenes in the palace work better than the ones on the street. Will Smith as the Genie works fine, but he has a thankless job of filling Robin Williams’ shoes, which is impossible. Thankfully he is not blue the entire time. He doesn’t get to bring much hip hop to the role until he gets a song in the credits. Jafar isn’t as delightfully evil and the parrot is more of a parrot instead of being Gilbert Gottfried, who was great in the original. The other animal sidekicks, Apu and Raja, are both well realized CGI characters, though the carpet certainly isn’t as expressive as the one in the cartoon and instead looks more like a carpet. Princess Jasmine is a stronger character (she gets the new songs) which makes the story work a little better actually, but there are still a lot of blurry lines about rules with the genie and the law that says Jasmine must marry a prince. The actress that plays her is very pretty and grows on you, while Aladdin seems overly Western and bland. I like what they added for the most part, but there are many elements that just aren’t as good as the original, including the carpet, parrot, and genie, so ultimately there doesn’t seem much of a reason to remake a great movie, even though I enjoyed it along with the extras.
Update (March 2020): I wound up buying this on blu-ray to complete a Disney Movie Club enrollment, but was really on the fence about buying it. I watched it again and, going in with more accurate expectations, I was able to enjoy it, but mostly reinforcing my first impression. Real actors do make the story work better since it is mostly about people. Naomi Scott (Princess Jasmine) is just amazingly good looking and just about makes the movie worth watching by herself. Also great that she gets a bigger part and more development. Some aspects are clunky, like Aladdin deciding not to free the genie, which lasts maybe two minutes. And the carpet ride looks like they are on a 4D amusement park ride (literally clunky). Dalia, the handmaiden, on the other hand is a great addition and is funny in just about every scene she is in. Will Smith needed a little more emotion at times, which Robin Williams was so good at, but he still makes a good genie.
Written: 15 Jun 2019
Owned on: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital